Such criticisms have not gone down at all well with the supporters of statins. Sir Rory recently attacked the high-profile signatories (one of whom was Dr Kendrick) to an open letter calling on NICE to re-think its stance on the matter.

He said: 'I'm concerned that the public as a whole and doctors as a whole are being misinformed.

'This has the potential to cause very large numbers of unnecessary deaths from heart attacks and strokes, and the people who put their names to that letter should be ashamed of themselves.'